[3] Founded in 2010 by Oliver Pawle, Dee Stirling, Sir Nigel Rudd and The Lord Davies of Abersoch CBE, the NEF was designed to support the next generation of UK entrepreneurs building new businesses.
[5] In 2017, it was announced a new organisation would be set up by NEF and The Centre for Entrepreneurs to work on long-term challenges to entrepreneurship in the United Kingdom.
[11][12][13] The course has several components including:[14] Each June the current cohort and alumni pitch their business ventures to a panel of investors.
[22] Compared to March 2022, the founders NEF and Alumni have gone on to create over 200 live businesses, 5,000 jobs, raise £221m in early-stage funding and now have a collective valuation of £630m.
Among these businesses[23] are Inkpact,[24] Pollen8,[25] Plus44 Holdings (whose primary product is Sliide App),[26] Stand4Socks,[27] Krzana,[28] Wiser,[29] Sideways6,[30] Turn Partners[31] and CharlieHR.